Chief among the concerns was that a system for cannabis grown and used for medical purposes would be limited to the legal recreation market created by I-502, the rules for which have recently become law.

Specifically, the recommendations by the Washington State Liquor Control Board and the Departments of Revenue and Health would:

Eliminate home-grows and the ability for a qualified patient or designated provider to possess marijuana plants in any stage of growth.

And, fold medical marijuana growing, producing and selling into the I-502 system: “A single system for medical and recreational producer and processor licenses. Only recreational marijuana stores with an endorsement may accept medical marijuana authorization cards.”

Kohl-Welles has been involved with medical marijuana legislation since roughly 1995, and in 2011 she sponsored a bill creating a medical system for cannabis that passed the state Senate and House but had key sections vetoed by then-Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Kohl-Welles is currently working on another bill, still largely unformed, for the next Legislative session starting in January that would create a structure for medical marijuana, she said.

What’s it matter who grows it?

While Kohl-Welles likes many of the recommendations the agencies came up with (see the full list below), she does intend to fight for the ability of medical patients to grow their own or have a “designated provider” grow it for them.

“I don’t think we need to have two systems, but we have to preserve the ability for legitimate, qualifying patients to have access to a safe, secure, reliable source for their medicine,” she said. “I think that supporting home-grows makes sense. It’s the humane thing to do. It just has to be controlled.”

Currently, according to the Department of Health, authorized patients can possess 24 ounces of useable cannabis, instead of just one ounce allowed in I-502. And, authorized patients can grow up to 15 plants.

If the Legislature disallows home-growing and mandates all marijuana must come from growers licensed under I-502 rules, then many cannabis patients worry they won’t have adequate access, the product will be too expensive and they won’t be able to get the kinds of cannabis that does them the most good.

One way to regulate home growing for medical use, Kohl-Welles said, is to tie the right to grow at home (or have a designated provider grow it) to signing up with a state-run registry.

But, the idea of making medical users sign up with the state in order to get a medical card and access to medical pot also doesn’t sit well with many who fear the state list will be used by law enforcement to round up growers.

However, Kohl-Welles points out that Washington is the only state with medical marijuana that doesn’t have a registry, and she doesn’t think one will be used against patients.

(There has been one case we know of in which some Oregon patient information was scooped up by the DEA as part of an investigation – See our story. In the same story, we note that a city county in California resisted a subpoena and was able to keep patient information private.

Update 10-29: A reader in the comments below pointed out that this county has just this month relinquished its records. The Press Democrat reports:

Mendocino County officials will turn over to federal prosecutors records from their now-defunct medical marijuana permitting program to comply with new grand jury subpoenas, the county counsel’s office announced Wednesday.

It remains unclear exactly what documents are being relinquished to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. County Counsel Thomas Parker said the Sept. 25 subpoenas seek “a limited number of unredacted county records.”

The move follows a year of legal wrangling over efforts by federal prosecutors to get their hands on paperwork from the program, which was scrapped in January 2012 under threat of a federal lawsuit after less than two years in operation. )

“It’s going to take awhile for people to be assured this not going to be a harm to them,” Kohl-Welles said. “This isn’t being set up to take away civil liberties.”

She said the benefits of a registry would be tighter control over who issues medical marijuana cards and what medical conditions those cards are issued for.

In the end, medical marijuana in Washington will change or be subject to intense legal pressure.

Officials in state and local governments as well as law enforcement from the feds on down have made it clear that the current, mostly unregulated, “system” in which medical pot is distributed is “untenable” and has to be shut down or significantly changed.